The thoughts and reflections of one who is passionate about Jesus and struggles with sin just like everyone else.

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Friday, November 7, 2014

Three Old Testament Biblical Theologies

Found this at Pastoralized. I have been brushing up on my OT knowledge the last fw years and will have to add the first as I have the other two.

When I first began learning about biblical theology at Wheaton Graduate School, I was immediately hooked. To this day one of my greatest joys in studying Scripture is discovering new twists and turns that the themes of the Bible take on their journey from Genesis 1-3 through Jesus’ ministry and on to Revelation 21-22.

To spur you on to biblical theological love and good works, I thought I’d recommend a few Old Testament theologies that you ought not to neglect to meet together with.

A House for My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament, by Peter J. Leithart. While Leithart’s work can be considered a survey insomuch as he aims mostly at the key themes and stories of the OT, don’t let the title fool you, this is not Old Testament 101. Not that it is super academic or inaccessible either, but Leithart aims for much more than conveying an elementary knowledge of the OT.

Dominion and Dynasty: A Biblical Theology of the Hebrew Bible, by Stephen G. Dempster. Generally speaking, biblical theologies take one of two approaches: either exploring individual books of the Bible and drawing out their themes individually, or tracing overarching themes through the entire testament or canon. Dempster accomplishes both goals in his book, giving the basic thrust of each individual book (although he takes some together as a corpus, like the minor prophets), but also showing how each book contributes to the storyline of the whole Old Testament, as it is arranged in the Hebrew.